HONG KONG & GUANGZHOU: 「Future Lock In Not Lock Down」 The 6th Annual Meet of Future City Summit Concluded with Long-Term Official Engagement with the World Economic Forum on IoT and Urban Transformation in Emerging Asia

The 6th Annual Meet of the Future City Summit was hosted virtually on 14th - 16th December 2021 with the main theme of 「Planet Renaissance: Future Lock In Not Lock Down」, sponsored by Invest Hong Kong and Tsangs Group and supported by the World Economic Forum IoT and Urban Transformation, St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland, a2i ICT Division of Prime Minister Office of Bangladesh, Plug and Play Tech Centre, Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences and Enabling Africa Trade Forum (EFTA).

●    As the 2nd year of the global pandemic and its impacting global economic and supply chain shift, countries around the world were adjusting global policies and transformation with technologies, policies and innovations to ensure the society back to normal, living with coronavirus. The 6th Annual Meet was kickstarted and addressed by Patrick Tsang, Chairman of Tsangs Group; Stephen Phillips, Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) and Jeff Merritt, Head of Urban Transformation and the Member of Executive Committee of the WEF.

●    The Annual Meet was attended by 1,045 delegates online from over 66 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, with 12,484 total reach on social media during the Live-Streaming. New participating countries included Saudi Arabia, France, Finland, Ireland and Mongolia.

●    Special Session the Planning for Good Cities Roadshow highlighted the introductions of Northern Metropolis (北部都會區), the long-term territorial urban planning recently announced by the “Hong Kong 2030+ Vision” and the expansion plan of “Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone”, connecting the both through the milestone infrastructure such as the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park, presented by Ryan Ip, Head of Land and Housing Research at Our Hong Kong Foundation and Prof. Witman Hung, JP, Principal Liaison Officer for Hong Kong at Shenzhen Qianhai Authority. The Roadshow was also participated by the North Dhaka City Corporation, West Java Creative Economy and Innovation Committee, Digital Government Services Team and Urban Development Authority of Sri Lanka. 

●    The 6th Annual Meet covered key development agenda in 5 regions: digital transformation and its inclusion challenges in Southeast Asia; regional cooperation against climate changes in South Asia; Euro-Asia cooperation with advantages over ideological differences and the future of global trade participation through technologies and innovations in Africa.  

●    The 5th region covered the Mainland China, Greater Bay and Hong Kong on the detailed socio-economic explanation of the recently announced “Common Prosperity” (共同富裕) in the 14th 5-years national plan. A special session on Hong Kong being the future Asia’s capital of arts and cultures was live-streamed in M+ Museum with the support of Hong Kong Foundation, keynote addressed by The Honorable Bernard Charnwut Chan GBM GBS JP, on-official Convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong SAR Government. 

●    The Sustainable Development Confidence Survey was launched by the team of Good City Foundation towards the 6th Annual Meet of Future City Summit, aiming to assess the confidence of current state and feasibility of reaching global sustainability by 2030. The survey is conducted in the style of "7+3" for 7 general macroscopic questions with 3 region-specific questions. 124 respondents among the delegates in the Future City Summit 2021 responded to the survey, with the summarized results and insights as presented below:  Click Here for Full Report

●    The  6th Annual Meet reviewed and concluded with an official institutional engagement partnership with the World Economic Forum IoT and Urban Transformation (WEF), led by Jeff Merritt, Head of Urban Transformation and the Member of Executive Committee of the WEF. 

●    The 6th Annual Meet was globally attended by top-notch institutions and organizations such as G20 Young Entrepreneur Association China Council, United Nations ESCAP, Commonwealth Association of Planners Young Planners' Network, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore Office), Asian Institute of Technologies in Thailand, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in Singapore, Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) in Pakistan, The Climate Group in India, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Yunus Environment Hub (YEH) in Switzerland, SheFound in Tanzania.

With the official engagement with the World Economic Forum’s IoT and Urban Transformation in Mainland China and ASEAN, Good City Foundation will be scaling to a greater range of global audience and smart city tech deal flows in the 7th Annual Meet of the Future City Summit. 

Contact for Partnership: community@futurecitysummit.org